February 28, 2017

He’s terrified of loving her.She’s terrified of losing him.

He’s terrified of loving her.

Quinn Mallick already had his happily-ever-after, and in the blink of an eye it was ripped away from him. Now he’s content to walk through the rest of his life carrying the weight of that guilt on his shoulders. He’s convinced he doesn’t deserve a second chance. But when the town’s beautiful dance teacher turns her sights on him he finds himself questioning everything.

She’s terrified of losing him.

Lilly Mathewson’s once quiet, predictable life has been turned on its head. Feeling alone and adrift, she finds her comfort in the most unexpected of places. Falling for the town widower was never part of the plan, but there is just something about the temperamental man she can’t seem to let go of.

What started as two grieving people leaning on each other has quickly turned into something neither of them expected. Lilly is ready to take the next step, but how do you move forward when the man you love refuses to let go of the past?

He has a broken soul. She has a broken heart. And the only way for them to heal is if they do it together.

***This is Book 3 in the Pembrooke series, a spin-off of Wildflower. They are interconnected standalones.***

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Its impossible to get through this book without crying at least once. This book was a roller coaster of high emotions, and while there was love and joy, pain and loss were the prevalent emotions.

The loss of anyone you love will change you forever but it's how you handle that change that really matters. Quinn was only living half a life, if that. He let the past dictate his present and his future. He held what was so firmly in his grasp he couldn't see past it to what he could have.

Lilly was beautiful inside and out. Her capacity and eagerness to love was bigger than most. She had a strength that most of us will never experience but we all have our breaking point. Her story was just as heartbreaking as Quinn's. Watching these two broken people piece each other back together was beautiful.

What an amazing way to end a series that I absolutely adore.

4.5 Stars

“So what about you? Have you always wanted to dance?”

Her voice went soft, her expression wistful. “Yeah. I’ve been dancing since I was about eight. I started a little later than most, but once my mom put me in classes, I was hooked.”

“You’re amazing,” I found myself admitting. “Why didn’t you go to New York or something like that?”

Her face flushed, and something told me it wasn’t from the wine this time. “You’ve seen me dance?”

“Yeah. Last week. I was getting in my truck after grabbing a coffee. The blinds to the studio were open and you were in there by yourself.” I stopped, thinking back to the sadness on her face that morning. “You were…”

“Crying,” she whispered, and although she still wore a smile, I could see the sadness had returned. “Yeah. You kind of caught me on a bad day.”

Suddenly I was aware of what I must have been putting my loved ones through, because even though I knew it wasn’t fair, I wanted to push her to talk about whatever was bothering her. Instead, I ignored that curious niggling in my gut and said, “You know, I might not be as good a listener as you are, but if you ever need to talk…”

“Thanks,” she smiled. “It’s okay. I’m okay. I just got some bad news the day before.” She stopped long enough to inhale deeply before she continued. “My dad’s sick. Cancer. I found out about it the day before.”

“Christ,” I hissed. “Lilly, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right. I was struggling with how to cope, you know? I couldn’t imagine…” Her voice cracked and her throat moved as she swallowed. “I still can’t imagine not having him, and knowing he’s going to die… it really fucking sucks.” When she let out a self-deprecating laugh, it took everything I had not to jump across the table and wrap my arms around her. I’d never felt more out of my element with a person before, yet, at the same time, I could relate to her better than most.

“I went down to the studio before it opened and put on the music and just… escaped for a little while. I’ve always used dancing as a way to escape. When I was little, I had trouble in school. I’m dyslexic and it took a while for the doctors to be able to diagnose it. I know it’s not really a big deal, but when you’re in elementary school and have trouble reading, well, let’s just say the kids can be real assholes.

“My mom enrolled me in dance classes and I discovered that when I was moving, when the music was playing, all the mean things those kids said about me just… disappeared. It was my escape, to this day it still is. So, to answer your question, that’s why I never wanted to pursue something like New York. It might sound weird, but what I do now, when I dance, even when I teach my kids, it’s all for me. If I tried to join a company, everything I did would be for them. Doing what I do now, I don’t have to answer to anybody. I don’t have to worry about the routines becoming monotonous. I get to leave my head for a while and not worry about the outcome. Does that make any sense?”

I hardly recognized my voice, the sound rougher, almost jagged as I said, “It makes perfect sense.” I had no clue what was coming over me, why I was reacting the way I was, but I couldn’t stand to see that heartache in her eyes any longer. Standing from my place on the floor, I held my hand out to her. “Come on. I want to watch you dance.”

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Born and raised around Houston Texas, Jessica spent most of her life complaining about the heat, humidity, and all around pain in the ass weather. It was only as an adult that she quickly realized the cost of living in Houston made up for not being able to breathe when she stepped outside. That’s why God created central air, after all.

Jessica is the mother of a perfect little boy–she refuses to accept that he inherited her attitude and sarcastic nature no matter what her husband says.

In addition to being a wife and mom, she’s also a wino, a coffee addict, and an avid lover of all types of books–romances still being her all time favs. Her husband likes to claim that reading is her obsession but she just says it’s a passion…there’s a difference. Not that she’d expect a boy to understand.

Jessica has been writing since she was a little girl, but thankfully grew out of drawing her own pictures for her stories before ever publishing her first book. Because an artist she is not.

Eli Crane is one tough bastard. After an explosion left him injured and honorably discharged from the Marines, all he wants is to be left alone. Yet his brothers insist he take a greater role in the family business. They've hired him ten personal assistants—and Eli sent each one packing as fast as possible. But when beautiful number eleven walks through the door, Eli will do anything to make her stay.

Isabella Sawyer's employment agency can't afford to lose Eli Crane's business. Her plan: to personally take on the role of his PA, and secure her reputation with the wealthy elite in Chicago. But this beauty and her hot billionaire bad boy soon find themselves mixing business with pleasure in the most delicious ways. And passionate, stubborn Isabella won't rest until she tames this wicked beast . . .

A love these brothers! This storyline was wonderful. The characters are very well developed and very engaging. Isabella has a great personality with a lot of sass. Eli is still learning to deal with his circumstances. He can be an arrogant ass at times but meets his match in Isabella. These two have great chemistry and the relationship they develop is truly beautiful. This was the best story I could have hoped for for Eli.

A former job-hopper, Jessica Lemmon resides in Ohio with her husband and rescue dog. She holds a degree in graphic design currently gathering dust in an impressive frame. When she's not writing super-sexy heroes, she can be found cooking, drawing, drinking coffee (okay, wine), and eating potato chips. She firmly believes God gifts us with talents for a purpose, and with His help, you can create the life you want.

Introducing book 1 in the new Checkmate Duet Series from a secret duo of romance authors under the USA Today bestselling pseudonym, Kennedy Fox!

This friends to lovers romance will have you swooning and laughing from the first to the last page! Are you ready to play the game?

Drew Fisher is the type of guy every girl wants.

Noble police officer by day, charming prince by night.

He has no idea the effect he has on women, especially me—his little sister’s best friend.

I’m the blonde Southern belle who lives up to the cliché, except I have my own quirks. I’m smart as a whip, can change my own oil, and recite The Pledge of Allegiance backward, but he doesn’t see that girl.

It’d be easier to forget him if he wasn’t my roommate and if the first thing I saw in the morning wasn't his shirtless body covered in tattoos. I’ve crushed on him since the day we met, but he’s made it perfectly clear where we stand. Just friends.

I know I need to move on and accept that his feelings will never be mutual, but every day he smiles at me, I’m left dreaming of what if.

He has girl issues, and I’ve got a crush I can’t deny.

We’re friends, but I want more.

One drunken hookup leaves us with much more than a platonic friendship. Pretending it never happened proves to be more difficult than anticipated.

A crazy ex-girlfriend, a dangerous war of stolen glances, and passionate kisses leads to the most reckless battle yet. I won’t be a pawn in his game, but I’ll play by his rules if it will show him I’m the one worth breaking them for.

Checkmate, Prince Charming.

*Recommend for ages 18+ due to sexual content and adult language.*

**This is book 1 of 2 in the Checkmate Duet Series--a friends to lovers romance. Highly recommended to read the Checkmate Duet, This is War and This is Love first, but not necessary. This can read as a standalone duet.**

I loved the first duet, but I have to say this duet might just take over the top spot!. These two characters where spot on. It was hilarious to read with their banter and playfulness toward each other. Then on the opposite end, because of the history and the chemistry between Courtney and Drew this book was off the charts hot! It just made for the perfect combination!

The storyline was great! There was just enough angst to keep me on the edge of my seat. Then the drama with Mia...while it made me extremely frustrated for Courtney, it kept me wanting more! I was always waiting for her to pop up and to see what she would do next. I loved the friends to lovers part of the story. The anticipation of the first kiss between two people who have known each other for so long, kills me every time! It's like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

This book is a MUST READ! It is so amazing. The story is fantastic, the writing is fantastic. Everything is FANTASTIC! I can't wait to see what is in store next for Courtney and Drew!!!

5 Stars

Review by: Tatia

This series just keeps getting better and better. I've been looking forward to Courtney's story since I found out we were getting it. She's a little spitfire. I've always thought it would take a lot of man to be able to handle her. I think Drew is just the man for the job.

She's been pining after him for three years. He only sees her as his best friend and roommate. He has an on again off again girlfriend who knows how to play him. Courtney only wishes he could see what's right in front of him. Literally. Once Drew realizes just how much his girlfriend was controlling him and his emotions, he can finally see clearly. He finally sees what everyone else did all along. But now he's having these dreams. They're anything but innocent. And the star of them is his best friend.

All throughout Viola and Travis' story, I wanted Courtney and Drew to get together as well. I wanted him to see and look at her the way she has him for so long. I honestly thought that he would forever be blinded by the girlfriend that was in the picture. She had a tight hold on him, that's for sure. Once things start to heat up, I couldn't tear myself away from this story. I was eager to see how everything was going to play out. KennedyFox writes stories that I can't get enough of. I'm unable to put them down to do the simplest of tasks. Those are the ones that I love. I want to be so absorbed in a story that everything else disappears. Thats simple when the writing is this good. If you've loved the previous books in this series then you'll have to add Checkmate: This is Reckless to the list.

A secret duo of romance authors team up under the USA Today Bestselling pseudonym, Kennedy Fox who share a love of You’ve Got Mail and The Holiday. When they aren’t bonding over romantic comedies, they like to brainstorm new book ideas. One day, they decided to collaborate together under a pseudonym and have some fun creating new characters that’ll make your lady bits tingle and your heart melt. If you enjoy romance stories with sexy, tattooed alpha males and smart, independent women, then a Kennedy Fox book is for you!

Enemies to Lovers has to be one of my favorite troupes!!! There is so much anger and bitterness between the characters that when they finally turn that anger into passion, it's explodes! That's exactly what happens with Reed and Lola. And when it happened, it was glorious!

Lola was perfect I loved her quirkiness and craziness and I love it even more that Reed enhanced these qualities in her. The banter between these two was fantastic and I loved all the goofy nicknames for Lola. Reed was a little different character. He was a hard one to figure out. For most of the book there were parts of him that remained a mystery.

I loved the idea of these two going head to head in the beginning. It made the story a lot of fun to read. To me the story started off a little slow. We were getting to know the characters but there wasn't a lot of action happening. Lola did have a lot of inner dialogue. While a lot of it was fun and hilarious to read, it did get to be repetitive at times.

Overall, this book was full of laughs and a lot of fun to read! I absolutely loved the banter between Reed and Lola! I thought the idea behind the storyline was really interesting, it plateaued pretty early for me. I wish there would have been more drama to the story. I thought it was well written in duel point of views. I am looking forward to what's coming next from MaxMonroe!

Normally, I needed a face-to-face encounter to read a person’s intentions, but something about what I knew about Lola from her column and the careful way she’d arranged her words when emailing me spoke to violence I wasn’t sure I’d ever witnessed.

Limb amputation, genital mutilation, and a healthy hock in order to leave a loogie behind on the tattered body.

Would meeting up with the woman behind the words lead to anything other than some kind of police involvement? Though, really, I kind of miss them…

No, no. I was supposed to be reformed.

But even the converted could find themselves in trouble when they least expected it. An impulsive video on YouTube that led to millions of views was proof of that. My inbox was now cluttered with interview requests from various media sources, as well as hate mail from angered Sex Says fans who didn’t appreciate my candid view regarding their favorite dating and relationship column.

I stared at the blinking cursor on the screen where I’d opened a return email and volleyed.